Mozilla Firefox 1.5 Beta Release : Blocked Trees & Checkins

Mozilla Firefox 1.5 Beta 1 is nearing release on September 8. And trees will be locked down and no more checkins will be accepted. Confused by the jargon?

Mozillazine reports
“In preparation for the release of Mozilla Firefox 1.5 Beta 1, the tree will be locked down tonight at 11:59pm Pacific Daylight Time (UTC -0700). After this point, no more checkins will be accepted for Firefox 1.5 Beta 1, which is set for release on Thursday. The lockdown will be lifted after 1.5 Beta 1 but the 1.8 branch will remain frozen, with all checkins requiring the prior approval of the branch drivers team.”

I was confused too with all this jargon of computers and developers till I read a comment below which explains that

“The “tree” is the set of code being developed, basically. “Checkins” are changes that are made to the code. So the tree being locked down means no changes being made. Checkins requiring approval from branch drivers means no changes without express permission from branch drivers.”

First Firefox 1.5 release candidate on Friday 28th October, but these later dates are subject to change. Have a look at the firefox 1.5 milestones. Firefox 1.5 Beta 1 is also known as the 1.8 Beta 4 milestone, while Firefox 1.5 Beta 2 is also referred to as 1.8 Beta 5. Now eagerly awaiting the firefox release.